Celtic can only draw to Astra Giurgiu in Europa League as Salzburg hammer Dinamo Zagreb

FC Astra Giurgiu 1 - Celtic 1 Scottish Champions Celtic could only draw with Astra Giurgiu on Thursday in their latest Europa League match. On a foggy evening in Romania, they entered the Stadionul Marin Anastasovici knowing that victory would have seen them qualify from Group D with two games to spare, but after earning a point they still seem well placed to join leaders Salzburg in the later stages of the competition. The next round of matches will see Salzburg come to Celtic Park in what promises to be an interesting return game, after the entertaining 2-2 draw the two teams played out in Austria earlier this year.

Celtic took the lead against their Romanian opponents just after the half hour mark, when midfielder Stefan Johansen's shot took a slight deflection on its way into the top corner of the net after Charlie Mulgrew's initial free-kick had been blocked. Although there were chances at both ends after the goal, the Glasgow side had looked to be in control until Douglas William Amorim curled a delightful shot past keeper Craig Gordon with only eleven minutes remaining.

The game ended in a draw, but not before a horrendous high two- footed lunge by Vincent Laban on Mulgrew in injury time saw him given his marching orders.

In the other Group D game, Austrian club FC Red Bull Salzburg confirmed their place in the next round with a convincing 5-1 win away to Dinamo Zagreb.

Spanish striker Jonathan Soriano Casas was their star man on the night with a hat-trick, ably supported by goals from Kevin Kampl and Massimo Bruno. The Croatians had briefly pulled the score back to 2-1 on the hour mark, through a goal from the Manchester United loanee Angelo Jose Henriquez Iturra, but the away team ran out easy winners in the end.

Two other early qualifiers on a busy night of Europa League action were Dinamo Moscow in Group E and Legia Warsaw in Group L. Dinamo claimed a narrow 1-0 victory at home to Estoril Praia, while Legia had to come from behind to earn a 2-1 result against Metalist Kharkiv, as both sides maintained the only 100% records in the competition this season.

This area provides transparent information about Blasting News, our editorial processes and how we strive for creating trustworthy news. Moreover, it fulfills our commitment to The Trust Project - News with Integrity (Blasting News is not a member of the programme, but has requested to be a part of it - TTP has not conducted a compliance review yet).

We and our partners use technologies, such as cookies, and process personal data, such as IP addresses and cookie identifiers, to personalise ads and content based on your interests, measure the performance of ads and content, and derive insights about the audiences who saw ads and content. For further details, please read our cookie policy. Click on the 'Accept' button to allow these uses or on 'Edit' to get more details and/or reject all or part of them. You can change your mind at any time and change your choices by clicking on 'Edit Consents' at the bottom of the page. If you continue browsing by accessing another area of the site or selecting, for example, an image or a link, you express your consent to the use of cookies and other profiling technologies used by the site.